Dropping DF when BF

[RachelC]

Sorry if this is a recent repost.  Not much down time around here with 30-60 minute naps!

How do you go about dropping the DF when you are BFing?  BW describes how to do it with formula, but I'm not quite sure how to adapt it to BF.  We used to use EBM, but the pumping was too much for me to deal with.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
~Rachel

[Samuel's mum]

There are a a variety of ways. Some people go cold turkey and observe what happens. Some people reduce the length of the feed by only offering one side or gently breaking the baby off before the end. If breaking the baby off will make them unhappy and 'wake them up' I would experiment with dropping it. Remember a lot of people find the DF very useful well beyond 6 months. I do believe some babies at 6 months will need a night feed and can be genuinely hungry. If you are thinking about dropping it things are clearly going well for you at night!

[daisymelan]

Hi there,

I also would think that your lo will still need the df for a little more time.  I just dropped my los around the 7.5 month mark.... and I did it cold turkey...

I thought I would wait to see if he woke up, and he didn't.

You could time how long your lo usually nurses at that time and slowly shorten down the amt of time.  That would be the way to compensate instead of counting oz on the bottle.

But again, you  may want to hold off just a little longer.  But you know better than anyone what your lo is capable of.

HTH

[RachelC]

Thanks.
We are planning on waiting a little while longer until the solids are more a part of her day.  Right now they are only served twice a day and are small meals.  She nurses very well at the df and then sleeps unitl 6 or 7.  I was just looking for some advice in advance.
~Rachel

[VickyB20]

Hi.  I've been having the same thoughts recently.  Ella is coming up to 7 months old now but it seems to me that her df is the biggest milk feed of her day.  I'm reluctant to stop it because I know how important milk continues to be for her but every now and again I rather fancy a night out!!  Rachel, please let me know how it goes for you and I'll do the same!
Vicky
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